The Road to Revolution

1754 - 1775

Gentry:

Church officials, Wealthy landowners, and successful merchants

Middle Class:

Skilled Artisans, Shopkeepers, and professional people

Lower Class:

Poor Farmers, Free servants, and Unskilled laborers

Indentured Servants and Slaves

Social Class System of the

American Colonies

The Great Awakening

George Whitefield Jonathan Edwards

Enlightenment“Age of Reason”

Emphasized science and reason

as the guides to life

John Locke

• English writer• Wrote about the social

contract that people made with their government

• Purpose of gov’t was to protect people’s natural rights --- life, liberty and ownership of property

Benjamin Franklin

• Discovered electricity• Published his opinions

in Poor Richard’s Almanack ------- “Early to Bed, and early to rise, makes a Man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

• Library Company of Philadelphia

Colonial Writers

Anne Dudley Bradstreet - 1st American poetry to be published.

Phillis Wheatley - 2nd American woman to be published

The French and Indian War

Ohio River Valley

England’s Allies:

The Iroquois League

France’s Allies: The Algonquins

and The Hurons

French and Indian War

• Rivalry between France and England along with the tensions among Native Americans set the stage for the French and Indian War.

• Part of a larger conflict known as the Seven Years’ War being fought in Europe and Asia as well as North America

George Washington

• Born in Virginia to a wealthy plantation family

• At age 15 was a surveyor.

• Married Martha

• Had no children of his own

• Father of our country

• 1st President of the United States of America

                                                                                                                     

Washington Sent . . .

• by Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia to warn the French to retreat.

• French refused.• Washington was sent out again to build a

fort where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to form the Ohio River.

• The French were building Fort Duquesne on that site.

Allegheny River

Monongahela River

Battle at Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Albany, NYJune 1754

• Meeting with colonists from 7 colonies and Iroquois to make sure that the Iroquois would support British colonists against the French

• Colonial delegates discussed working together, especially on defense.

• Agreed on plan based largely on an idea presented by Benjamin Franklin (a delegate from Pennsylvania)

Albany Plan of Union• Council made up of delegates from each colony, with a leader

appointed by the British king• Council would manage relations with Native American

(acting for all colonies) and have authority to raise and equip an army and navy.

• In order to pay for these actions, the council would have the right to tax the colonists.

• This was sent to the colonial assemblies and none approved it.• Each colony wanted to control its own taxes and make its own

decisions on military affairs.• Based on the organization of the Iroquois League

Editorial Cartoon

• An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is an illustration or comic strip containing a political or social message. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editorial_cartoons

Franklin’s Join or DieEditorial Cartoon

• He thought that the colonies were not connected.

• They needed to join together, or they would die.

The Albany Plan

AdvantagesAdvantages

• English– More people (20:1

ratio; more than 1 million to about 60,000)

– Colonies were more compact geographically, thus easier to defend

– British navy ruled the seas

– Best leaders

• French– Single government

– United

– Many Indian allies

General Edward Braddock

• 1755 army Used to European battle tactics - - soldiers lined up in neat rows and fought in open fields

• Didn’t listen to Washington’s warnings

Results

• Disastrous for British

• July 9, 1755 -- British were ambushed near Turtle Creek.

• 1,000 British soldiers were killed.

• Braddock was wounded and would later die.

• His men buried him in the middle of the trail so that the opposed Indians wouldn’t dig him up and dismember him.

France and Great Britain declared war in 1756.

William Pitt

• Appointed Minister of War by King George II

• Showed great skill in planning troop movements and strategy.

• Believed the war would be won or lost in America.

Turning Point in the War

England started winning after Pitt was made Minister of War.

General James Wolfe

• The most difficult task of the war----capturing Quebec, the capital of New France.

General Marquis de Montcalm

• French leader at Battle of Quebec and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham

Plains of Abraham

Battle of QuebecBattle of Quebec

Marked the end of French power in North America

General Jeffrey

Amherst takes

Montreal, the other

major city in New France.

The Treaty of Paris, 1763

1 British gained Canada and all French lands East of the Mississippi River.

2 Spain gave Florida to England.

3 France kept only the sugar growing islands in the West Indies.

4 France gives all land West of the Mississippi River to Spain (plus New Orleans).

Great Britain’s North American Empire had doubled in size.

• Problems:– Expensive to support– Expensive to defend– Tried to make colonists pay

Taxes and Boycotts

Proclamation of 1763

As a result of Pontiac’s Rebellion, Britain closed all western lands beyond the Appalachian mountains.

Some ignored the line and settled west anyway.

Britain sent troops to enforce this ruling.

Solving money problems

• Britain thought the colonies should help pay for the French and Indian War.

• Colonies thought it was responsibility of the mother country.

George Grenville

New British Prime Minister

Sugar Act of 1764

•Tax on foreign molasses and sugar.

•Colonists refused to pay it.

Quartering Act

(1765)

Required colonists to pay for quartering British soldiers in their area.

Stamp Act, 1765

• Pay special tax on certain items that were then stamped to show the tax had been paid

• newspapers, playing cards, and legal documents (diplomas or licenses)

• “No taxation without representation”• protests, riots, Sons of Liberty, boycott,

Stamp Act Congress

Declaratory Act, 1766Declaratory Act, 1766

Parliament had the right to rule and tax the colonies

Townshend ActsTownshend Acts

Import tax on . . .

Paint, glass, lead, paper, and tea

Colonists reaction . . .

Nonimportation Nonimportation AgreementsAgreements

Merchants and planters signed these agreeing to not import taxed goods.

Plus. . . the Daughters of Liberty formed.

Boston NewsBoston News

Boston Massacre5 Killed, One African American sailor

A mob of youths and dockworkers began throwing snowballs at a British guard on duty last night. Reinforcements arrived and an angry mob surrounded them. In the confusion, soldiers began to fire their guns into the crowd. When the shooting stop, five lay dead in the street. One was Crispus Attucks, an African American sailor.

British Captain Preston denied that he gave the order to fire and it appears that he maybe cleared. Samuel Adams spoke for many colonists when he called the incident the Boston Massacre.

March 6, 1770

Boston NewsBoston News

Repeal of Townshend ActsIn an effort salvage relations between Britain and the

colonies, Lord North, the new Prime Minister, had the Townshend Acts repealed. However, there was one catch. The tax on tea would remain in effect. It appears that the tax is to remind the colonists of Parliament’s authority and as everyone knows tea is a very popular drink in the colonies.

April, 1770

Repeal of Townshend ActsIn an effort to salvage relations between Britain and the

colonies, Lord North, the new Prime Minister, had the Townshend Acts repealed. However, there was one catch. The tax on tea would remain in effect. It appears that the tax is to remind the colonists of Parliament’s authority and as everyone knows tea is a very popular drink in the colonies.

Committees of Correspondence

• Organized by Samuel Adams

• Towns of Massachusetts

• Network of passing news

TEA ACT, 1773

East India Company gained exclusive rights to sell tea directly to the Americans without paying the British import tax.

They also won the right to delivery it in their own ships straight into the harbors.

Boston Tea Party

Coercive Acts, 1774a.k.a. Intolerable Acts

1 Closed port of Boston until payment for tea was made

2 British officials accused of a crime were to be tried in England rather than American courts.

3 British troops could be quartered in any town in Massachusetts - - even private homes.

4 Massachusetts’ charter was amended to greatly reduce the colony’s right of self-government

Quebec Act

Ohio River

French Canadians were allowed to keep their laws, language, and Roman Catholic religion.

Colonists’ Reaction

• Saw this as the 1st step in doing away with jury trials as well as Protestantism

• Believed it was done to keep American settlers out of the western lands

Causes

• Quebec Act allows French settlers in Ohio valley

• British quarter soldiers in Boston colonists’ homes

• Committees of Correspondence unite colonial opinion

• Coercive Acts close the port of Boston

Meeting of First Continental Congress

First Continental Congress

• September 1774 - 56 delegates from every colony except Georgia met in Philadelphia

• Suffolk Resolves - brought from a meeting in Boston by Paul Revere

• Approved Massachusett’s plan for arming and training a militia

• John Locke

• Made an appeal to King George asking him to make peace

Effects

• Colonies approve protests in Boston.

• Colonies ban trade with Great Britain.

• Congress appeals directly to King George III for relief.

• Delegates agree to meet again the next year.

Colonists take arms.

A call for minutemen

• Spring 1775 - hear that British are making a move

• Supply of guns and powder at Concord were the target as well as the arrest of Samuel Adams and John Hancock

General Thomas Gage

Samuel Adams

John Hancock

One if by land, two if by sea

Robert Newman would flash a light in the church bell tower according to how the British were planning their

attack. William Dawes and Paul Revere were the minutemen waiting

to deliver the message.

Page 199

700 British soldiers

70 Minutemen

Second Continental Congress

• May 1775

• Meet to: appoint a military commander and to raise an army

• Chose George Washington

• Still trying to avoid war, they sent the Olive Branch Petition begging the King to stop war and make peace, but he declared the Americans to be rebels

• Led American colonies directly into to war

Olive Branch is a symbol of peace.

The American Revolution begins.